UK Offence Report

Clamping a vehicle

regulation 22(4)(a) of The Fines Collection Regulations 2006

This offence was read from the text as made, and no revised version was available, so a later revocation could not be ruled out. Check the current text at legislation.gov.uk.

What the provision says

a that the vehicle has been clamped and that it is an offence under paragraph

49 of Schedule

5 to remove or attempt to remove the clamp or the notice;

Text as made, from legislation.gov.uk. © Crown copyright, reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0. This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.

Who it binds, and what has to be proved

Binds
a person
Conduct
breaching the provision
Fault element
Strict liability
Burden of proof
No statutory defence — prosecution proves everything

The prosecution must prove that the conduct happened. This is a strict liability offence as drafted: the provision uses no word of intention, knowledge, recklessness or negligence, so there is no need to show that a person meant to do it, knew about it, or was careless.

Intention, knowledge and carelessness are irrelevant to guilt. They may still matter a great deal to sentence.

The provision states no defence, so the prosecution bears the burden on every element of the offence.

Classifier’s reasoning: no word of intention, knowledge, recklessness or negligence in the offence or its provision.

What would breach regulation 22(4)(a)?

These are illustrations, not law. They are generated from the provision’s own words to show the shape of the offence. Whether any particular conduct is caught depends on the full text, on any amendment since, and on the facts.

  1. Doing what the provision prohibits, or failing to do what it requires under the Fines Collection Regulations 2006.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Not determined
Maximum fine
Not determined
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

no penalty is stated in this instrument; it may be in the enabling Act, or in a general penalties provision this pass did not connect to the offence.

No penalty was determined from this instrument. It may be in the enabling Act, or in a general penalties provision this pass did not connect to the offence. Absence of a figure here is not evidence that the offence carries no penalty.

Sentencing

Offences of this kind are usually sentenced under the guidelines below. This is a mapping by subject, not a finding about this provision, and the links go to a search of the Sentencing Council’s own site.

Prosecution figures

No published per-offence figure was found for this provision, and it could not be matched to a Ministry of Justice offence code. Offences created by statutory instrument very largely do not have one. Absence of a figure is not evidence that the offence is unused.

Status and lifecycle

Current status
Status not determined
Made
6 March 2006
In force from
27 March 2006
Extent
E+W

How this was established: read from the text as made; no revised version available, so later revocation could not be ruled out.

What the instrument is for

(This note is not part of the Regulations) — the explanatory note published with the instrument, © Crown copyright.

These Regulations are made under Schedule 5 to the Courts Act 2005 (“Schedule 5”). Schedule 5 introduced a scheme for the collection of fines, which has been piloted in various forms since February 2004. These Regulations support the final pilot scheme for the collection of fines and they replace the Fines Collection Regulations 2004. Part 2 (fine increase, delivery and summons) makes provision for the amount by which a court must increase a fine under paragraph 42A of Schedule 5; the methods by which a “further steps” notice may be delivered to the person who is liable to pay the sum due (“P”) and to allow a fines officer, when referring P’s case to the court, to issue a summons to secure P’s attendance at court. Part 3 (attachment of earnings) contains provisions for calculating the deductions that an employer must make from P’s earnings under an attachment of earnings order made under Schedule 5. Part 4 (clamping of motor vehicles) contains provisions about the clamping of motor vehicles under a clamping order made by a fines officer pursuant to a “further steps” notice, or by a court under Schedule 5. It includes provisions about the procedure for making a clamping order, the clamping, removal, storage and sale of clamped vehicles and the release of clamped vehicles on payment of the charges and sum due. Part 5 (application of enactments with modifications) applies, with modifications, the Magistrates' Courts (Attachment of Earnings) Rules 1971 (“the 1971 Rules”) and the Fines (Deductions from Income Support) Regulations 1992 (“the 1992 Regulations”) for the purpose of giving effect to Schedule 5. The modifications to the 1971 Rules ensure that, so far as relevant,— a the rule (rule 6) relating to the service of attachment of earnings orders and the giving of a notice of cessation apply in relation to orders made by a fines officer, as well as those made by a court, under Schedule 5; b orders made by a court and those made by a fines officer under Schedule 5 may be varied by the court or the fines officer on a change of employment (under rule 12); c a court or a fines officer may (under rule 13) discharge an order made under Schedule 5—by either a court or fines officer acting in the same area—if it appears that P is not employed by the employer named in that order; d a court or a fines officer may (under rule 15) make a consolidated attachment order under Schedule 5 and such orders may consolidate attachment of earnings orders made under Schedule 5, with those made under section 1(3)(b) of the Attachment of Earnings Act 1971 (i.e., orders made before 27th March to secure the payment of sums imposed on conviction) or under section 1(3)(c) of that Act (i.e., orders to secure payment of criminal defence costs in publicly funded cases); e a court or a fines officer, having power to make an attachment of earnings order under Schedule 5, may (under rule 16) transfer the fine or other sum due to another local justice area with a view to the making of a consolidated attachment order; and f any rules that are not relevant to cases falling within Schedule 5, do not apply (those include rule 4, rule 6(3)(a) and (b), rules 8 to 11, rule 13(2), rule 18(1) in part and (3), rule 19, rule 22(2)(b), (c) and (e) and rule 23). The modifications to the 1992 Regulations ensure that— g the regulation (regulation 2(1)) which allows applications for benefit deductions to be made under that regulation does not apply in cases where Schedule 5 applies. This is because, where Schedule 5 applies, any application for benefit deductions must be made in accordance with that Schedule; h where an application for benefit deductions is made under Schedule 5, the court or the fines officer making that application may (under regulation 2A) require P to give the information necessary to complete the application; i the regulation (regulation 3) which prescribes the content of an application for benefit deductions applies to applications made by a court or a fines officer under Schedule 5; j the regulation (regulation 4) concerning the deductions to be made from benefits pursuant to an application, applies to applications made by a court or a fines officer under Schedule 5, and applies in relation to the collection of any sum mentioned in paragraph 1 of Schedule 5; k the regulation (regulation 7) concerning the circumstances, time of making and termination of deductions from benefits, applies in relation to applications made by a court or a fines officer under Schedule 5 and ensures that the conditions, under the 1992 regulations, for making benefit deductions are not inconsistent with the conditions, under Schedule 5, for making an application for such deductions; l a court or a fines officer, having made an application for deduction from benefits under Schedule 5, may withdraw that application (under regulation 8).

Read the full note and every offence in this instrument

Other offences in the same instrument

How this was identified as an offence

Everything above rests on the judgement that this provision creates a criminal offence, rather than mentioning one. That judgement is made by rule, from the words of the provision, and this is the rule that made it — with a confidence of 0.90.

Basis
the provision says “it is an offence”; the provision says an offence is committed “if” something happens
Confidence
0.90 of 1.00

A provision that states a penalty for an offence created elsewhere can read very like one that creates an offence, and the rules can mistake the one for the other. If the text quoted above sets a penalty for something made an offence by another provision, treat the classification on this page with that in mind, and read the instrument.

Check the source